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Lockheed Martin Conducts Second Successful Netfires Technology Demonstration Test

DALLAS, TX, November 20th, 2001 -- Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control recently conducted a successful Boost Test Vehicle (BTV-1) flight test demonstration of technology related to the company's NetFires Loitering Attack Missile (LAM). The test was conducted at the Naval Surface Weapons Center - Dahlgren facility in Virginia. Initial data indicate all test objectives were achieved. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is under contract to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for development of NetFires LAM technology. This is the second in a series of increasingly difficult tests resulting in a vertically launched family of canistered missiles for wide area search, automatic target recognition, networked/coordinated attack and precision strike.

The BTV-1 test collected data to validate small tactical missile vertical launch simulations and design data for launch canister and missile components. Specifically, the test involved a lightweight closed-breech launch tube and solid rocket booster. Lockheed Martin Naval Electronic Surveillance Systems-Marine Systems in Baltimore, Maryland, designed and built the canister and launcher. Additional NetFires launcher and missile testing is scheduled through Fiscal Year 2003.

NetFires is a DARPA/U.S. Army cooperative program to demonstrate future weapons technology, supporting the Future Combat System (FCS). The NetFires objective is to develop technology for beyond line-of-sight fires for FCS. The networked system includes a remotely controlled, platform-independent launcher and two missiles, the LAM and the Precision Attack Missile (PAM).

Employing more than 8,500 people, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with additional base operations in Orlando, Fla., and manufacturing and assembly facilities in Sunnyvale, Calif., Chelmsford, Mass., Camden, Ark., Horizon City and Lufkin, Texas, Ocala, Fla., White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and Troy, Ala. The company is a business unit of Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Bethesda, Md.

Craig Vanbebber, 972-603-1615
e-mail craig.vanbebber@lmco.com